MrBush

I am after some advise,

I have recently moved house and moved into a new rented property, when moving we was made aware by our new landlord of a deposit security scheme.

This scheme wasn't mentioned by our old landlord and now we have moved he is trying to deduct money from our deposit for different things wrong with the property. By law every landlord has to enter the deposit of any new tenant into this scheme within 14 days of the of the tenancy starting but it looks like he hasn't done this.

My girlfriend asked the landlord for documentation for the scheme as we didn't receive anything when we 1st moved in and all he has given us so far is a reference number.

I checked this reference number out with the company who has apparently been used by the landlord and all the information is incorrect.

We moved into the property on June 19th 2008 which means he should have entered our deposit into the scheme within 2 weeks of this date, he didn't do this and actually said to the company holding the deposit that our tenancy started in January 2009.

We moved out of the property on the 24th of September 2009 and he only entered our deposit into the scheme on the 22nd of September 2009.

This all means that he has broken the law on 3 cases, he didn't issue us with any documentation with regards to the scheme, he said that our tenancy only started on January 2009 when it actually started in June 2008 and he only started the scheme in September 2009 when we moved out in September 2009.

We have read up on this and it says that we can take them to court and as they have broken the law they will be made to pay back 3x the deposit but the court doesn't have the power to make them actually pay it and it will cost us £500+ to get them there.

Does anybody have any views or has any knowledge on this subject that will help me make a decision on what to do as at the moment I haven't got a clue what to do!

Cheers.

[rant over]

Spec'c'57

iTrader: (1)

Cant comment on that side of things as our flat is managed by a third party so they deal with that. But TBH would you not be better to have a chat with him about the said mishap and get your deposit back with nothing else said? im sure he could be pushed a little.

Supercue

iTrader: (1)

Funny you should mention this as Sam & I havnt had any details of what's happened to our deposit either. Although we only moved in in August. Note to ones self phone the buggers in the morning

When I moved out of my last place the Landlord never bothered putting my deposit in until 6mths after my tenancy started. Sams hadnt bothered doing it at all!
Fortunately we had no issues getting our deposits back.

As long as you get your money back after any agreed deductions then I wouldnt be too bothered. However, if you think he's being totally unreasonable then you need to have documented evidence (i.e. photos of when you moved in and out etc. ) if you have to take him to court for your deposit through the Small Claims Court you will need everything you can lay your hands on.

If Milamber cannot help phone the Citizens Advice Centre as this is a common problem and I'm sure they will point you in the right direction.

Good luck